Recommendation 36

The Department told us that its Transformation programme should reduce costs and improve payment compliance by digitalising processes and allowing its staff to move from case maintenance into enforcement activities.83 It expected CMS transformation to be complete by financial year 2024–25, at a cost of more than £30 million to save an estimated £151 million.84 The Department told us that it also planned to make wider improvements to its customer service through its transformation programme. The Department accepted that over the last two years, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, its service “has not been where we have wanted it to be.” However, it told us that its services are “certainly 77 C&AG’s Report, para 2.8; HM Treasury, Managing Public Money, para A.4.9.2, May 2021 78 Q 58 79 Qq 34 and 54 80 Qq 56 and 58 81 C&AG’s report, paras 3.2–3.3 82 Q 117; C&AG’s Report, para 3.4 83 Qq 117 and 122 84 Q97; C&AG’s Report, para 3.13 Child Maintenance 23 back on track” and that they were “without a doubt” going to get better.85 The Department told us that was seeking to “modernise the service, bringing far more digital services to customers that are easy to access and allow them to do some of the simpler things themselves” and “to capture better data, which will allow us to take different treatment solutions to different behaviour, rather than the one-size-fits-all approach.”86 However, it recognised “that not everyone has the bandwidth, the ability or the access” to use online services and provided reassurances that its telephone channel will always still available.87 85 Qq 120 and 121 86 Qq 97 and 98 87 Q119 24 Child Maintenance